We propose a Bayesian factor analysis model to rank the health of localities. Mortality and morbidity variables empirically contribute to the resulting rank, and population and spatial correlation are incorporated into a measure of uncertainty. We use county-level data from Texas and Wisconsin...

Factor model is an appealing and effective analytic tool for high-dimensional time series, with a wide range of applications in economics, finance and statistics. One of the fundamental issues in using factor model for time series in practice is the determination of the number of factors to use....

We investigate the possibility of exploiting partial correlation graphs for identifying interpretable latent variables underlying a multivariate time series. It is shown how the collapsibility and separation properties of partial correlation graphs can be used to understand the relation between...

A factor model based covariance matrix is used to build a new form of Mahalanobis distance. The distribution and relative properties of the new Mahalanobis distances are derived. A new type of Mahalanobis distance based on the separated part of the factor model is defined. Contamination effects...